After the unprofessional and ridiculous e-mail I received from the Burnsville Performing Arts Commission chair, Paul J. Jacques, I decided to pay a bit closer attention to the dealings of this important group.
Based on the agendas and minutes for previous BPAC Commission meetings I must say that I was surprised to see that they have been doing very little and are certainly acting more like aged musicians on tour to pad their early retirement funds rather than acting like the “rock stars” Councilmember Kealey made them out to be.
Before we go on make sure check out their agendas/minutes here: 7/21/2010 agenda, 7/21/2010 minutes, 8/4/2010 agenda, 8/18/2010 agenda)
Now for my very long narrative of the events from tonight (skip to “My Comments” below if you don’t care):
It was interesting to see that Frontier has an advertisement on the wall of the second floor of the BPAC which says Frontier wifi is available “here”. While I found the ad to be gaudy and intrusive the irony was not lost on me when I connected to the “BVGUESTPAC” network and found my IP to be that of a Comcast business class cable connection–not Frontier. Doesn’t say much for their sponsors when VenuWorks doesn’t even use them to provide what they claim they do. Now, I suppose Frontier could be paying for the Comcast connection that powers the building’s wifi but I doubt that’s the case. So who is paying for that connection being that it’s probably not Frontier? Hmmm.
I arrived at the BPAC Commission meeting a bit early and was greeted by Commission Chair Mr. Paul Jacques himself. After a brief introduction which was cut short by the utterance of my last name, he gestured towards a pile of sodas, coffee, bottled (not tap) water and cookies and suggested that I have some if I like. My first question was, “who pays for the pop?” After a questioning motion with his head, as if he didn’t hear me the first time, I asked again and got the reply, “I don’t know.” Well, in my very humble opinion Mr. Jacques, perhaps instead of the majority of ridiculous items which appeared on the agenda tonight, the first order of business would be to find out where money for refreshments at any variety of city meetings which occur at the BPAC, presumably free of BPAC fees, comes from. Because with a operating budget running into the red like you have, you should be looking for cost cutting measures any place you can find them, right?
One of the first orders of new business was discussion/approval of commissioner business cards:
This is something I just do not understand at all. I have worked for the last 10 years of my life and even though they are available to me I just see absolutely no reason why, in this day and age, anyone would need business cards. In a professional setting when I receive a business card I look at it strangely before tucking it into my wallet to throw away later. How would these be any different–especially when they will likely be provided to people who are being begged for money in an economy which has helped to exacerbate the already poor decision to build the BPAC in the first place.
While costs were not discussed at the meeting nor were they provided in the packet I was given, it was mentioned that Burnsville’s City Clerk will be doing edits/changes and design work on them. While I applaud the use of preexisting city resources to develop the business cards, it just baffles me as to why they need to be made in the first place. But that’s coming from someone who’s 31 and has a clue about the contemporary business world.
FOBPAC’s relationship with the BPAC Commission:
A discussion, with a hypothetical donation of $500,000 coming from the Target Corporation was discussed and Chair Jacques suggested how FOBPAC should be the recipient of this money as they are a 501(c)(3). With that in mind the hypothetical corporation would receive the tax benefit that the BPAC Commission/City could not provide. Commissioner David Ulrich suggested that the BPAC Commission create their own 501(c)(3), something which Deputy City Manager Tom Hansen said the city cannot legally do, so that they themselves could direct the dispersal of these funds. Mr. Ulrich was concerned about who would have control over the way the funds were used and inquired about what would happen if FOBPAC was provided the raised monies which group would be the advisory for it. Chair Jacques did not know and said that at a future meeting he will invite along Wayne Huelskoetter, FOBPAC’s President to discuss these issues.
I find the inclusion of FOBPAC in any sort of discussion to be hilarious. Aside from using them for their 501(c)(3) status, that group has shown that they are completely incapable of following through on any of the promises they made prior to the BPAC opening.
MMKR (the company which provided the first BPAC audit):
The reason for the followup was to determine if VenuWorks is now meeting the agreements that they have with the city. According to MMKR, “the initial results keyed in on the lack of specific procedures with regards to the finance procedures at the BPAC. The finance accounting manual needed to be more clear and distinct as to what the procedures are at the BPAC.”
The updated procedures were written and put into place on May 1st, 2010. There were more negative results prior to the updated manual and less afterward thus the MMKR rep focused his discussion more on what happened after May 1st. “Significant progress has been made,” in meeting the prior recommendations. “The staff here at the BPAC has taken our comments and the city’s comments to heart,” and made some changes in the manuals and procedures to cause the systems to improve. “The key to me is that this is a learning process.”
Now what I still want to understand is how a company, which has been in operation for years in numerous states and running many different venues can need so much hand holding to meet the incredibly mundane requirements put forth by the city. The fact that they are still in a “learning process” means that our prior call for VenuWorks to be fired was a valid one–and still is to this day.
The agenda item discussion continued on with other discussions and ended up with the commission members voting (motion: Jacques, second: Pevan), unanimously, to have MMKR do another audit in 2011 for FY2010. This decision was reached without discussion about costs involved–something which I find absolutely insane.
Budget draft for 2011:
A lengthy discussion occurred regarding VenuWorks’ 2011 budget and their general accounting procedures. VenuWorks projected an increase in revenue and a drop in operating costs for 2011 but Commissioner Ulrich pointed out that VenuWorks is expecting revenues of $706,350 and operating expenses of $1,098,730 with personnel costs at $645,204 alone and wanted to know how they could operate with such overhead knowing the revenues won’t match it.
Another discussion occurred regarding the “contributions and public support” figure of $416,000 (general fund tax dollars in addition to the EDA’s $400,000 yearly contribution). The commission members want this to be a line item on the budget so that the numbers even out at the bottom. Chairman Jacques said that he was having a problem understanding VenuWorks accounting practices with his knowledge as a banker and went on to say that, not even in 100 years, would the public be able to understand the numbers provided by the management company.
Discussion moved to how much revenue the BPAC received from advertising dollars put into the 2011 Burnsville Peforming Arts Center Season Guide. VenuWorks mentioned that they farmed this task out to a third party vendor as they had no success in raising the funds themselves in the first year of operations. Commissioner Ulrich mentioned that he believed the $2,000 he put into advertising in the booklet would be going to support the BPAC. VenuWorks went on to argue that even if it wasn’t going directly to their bottom line, it was indeed supporting the BPAC.
Commissioner Rixmann brought up the lack of marketing the BPAC is doing for events and had some questions about how VenuWorks handles this. Jon Elbaum, Executive Director of the BPAC, responded that marketing is left up to the promoter for the event and VenuWorks has nothing to do with it. Chairman Jacques then quotes from the agreement VenuWorks has with the city about how the management company is ultimately responsible for the marketing of the facility to which they replied, “yes, marketing for the facility,” implying that they are doing just that. Unfortunately as noted by Commissioner Bishop, few people in Burnsville even know the facility exists and thus VenuWorks has not met its contractual mandate there either.
Chairman Jacques then brought up the incentives VenuWorks would be given provided they meet certain minimums. He then asked for them to discuss amongst themselves whether a reverse incentive would be acceptable to them if they continue to miss their revenue projections. VenuWorks’ staff nodded that they would look into it. This is something similar to what Grand Forks did when they forced VenuWorks to refund their service feeds for 2008 and 2009 due to poor performance over the prior 5+ years. Unfortunately Chairman Jacques didn’t push it far enough in my opinion.
My comments:
1. I was not at all impressed with any members of the BPAC Commission present at last night’s meeting. Chairman Jacques was by far the most talkative and direct but his demeanor was unprofessional, cocky, and condescending. While I have no good things to say about VenuWorks, I don’t think that they should be treated the way he was treating them last night.
2. Jon Elbaum, Executive Director of the BPAC, is in way over his head. He is meek, uninformed, and cannot carry on an intelligent conversation under pressure. He should not be the director of a $20/year lemonade stand, let alone a $20 million facility which is running itself further into the ground with each passing day. His answers were shaky and many times he seemed unsure that what he was saying was even true. The simple fact that VenuWorks’ corporate offices felt that he was a viable director shows their lack of faith in the BPAC and is just further proof that they need to be removed immediately.
3. The BPAC Commission is wasting an awful lot of time getting background on an operation which is clearly not going to be successful. They have proven this with Grand Forks and the last year in Burnsville. Instead of wasting time with asking VenuWorks for information they should be consulting with Grand Forks’ the city and the commission to see what they need to do. In addition they need to start looking for alternatives to VenuWorks right now so that when it finally becomes obvious to the commission, as it has to those of us who have been following this from the start, that VenuWorks is ill equipped to handle the BPAC, that they can replace them without further delay.
Your thoughts:
So what do you think about the BPAC Commission meeting? Do you think that they are moving too slowly? What do you believe their priorities should be at this stage of the game? How about VenuWorks themselves? Based on the second audit results and their responses to the commission’s questions do you believe they’ll ever recover the losses incurred? Whatever you have to say go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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August 19th, 2010 at 9:27 am
lazy lightning credibility,no question. the above is one of the reasons i’m a b.r. lz.ltg groupie.
great post:)
bb
August 19th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Their first order of business was approving business cards for themselves.
Alrighty then.
The one glaring omission from the agenda and minutes of Meeting A-number-1 is the extensive discussion and exhaustive list the SPECIFIC barriers to quality acts being booked. (See Dan Kealey discussion from a few weeks ago). Every other venue in the Twin Cities has proven that the venue size excuses and economic excuses are a myth and have calendars full of shows that will draw people into their facility.
Surely they had that item right at the top of the agenda, right Bill? (Well…after approving business cards that is). Right?
IF NO QUALITY ACTS ARE BOOKED AT THE VENUE, NONE OF THE OTHER STUFF MATTERS AT ALL. THEY NEED TO FOCUS ON IDENTIFYING WHY IT IS FAILING BEFORE THEY CAN THROW ACCOUNTING, OPERATIONAL, AND OTHER FIXES AT THE WALL HOPING SOMETHING WILL STICK. BUTTS IN THE SEATS IS WHAT MATTERS NOW AND IT’S THE ONLY THING I’M NOT SEEING ON THE AGENDA/MINUTES.
It’s neat that they focused on marketing. Heck, I’m into marketing. In fact, I’ve carved out a niche and get paid a hell of a lot of money to participate in the corporate marketing process. You know what markets the best? QUALITY PRODUCTS THAT PEOPLE WANT. Funny…they even tend to draw a market without any effort at all.
August 19th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Business cards are still big in government for some reason. Also in businesses where those in charge tend to be people that still are challenged when asked to work with a computer.
The BPAC commission seems to not be understanding what their job is. Rehashing the past isn’t going to help anything. They need to start challenging Venuworks on the future. And if Venuworks can not meet the challenge (evidenced by their failures thus far) then someone else needs to be brought in.
If it was me, here is what I would have done.
#1 – Give Venuworks a specific specification for all financial and operational reports going forward. If they are not reporting properly now tell them what they need to be doing to be considered acceptable.
#2 – Discuss with Venuworks the reasoning behind the low level of acts booked for the venue. Ask them what they are doing to change it, and how what they are doing is any different than what they did last year.
#3 – Set metrics for Venuworks to achieve within a specific time frame. Let them know that missing those metrics will likely lead to their contract not being renewed.
#4 – Start discussions with other proposed management companies in anticipation of dumping Venuworks. Request from both Venuworks and these other companies proposals for the new contract period.
August 19th, 2010 at 11:16 am
More reasons to read Lazylightning.org. Real news. Bill on behalf of you loyal minions thanks for sitting in on horseshit meeting. One day I’ll look up failure and there will be a pic of the mayor Katz memorial art center. Empty.
But I can’t say it’s completely a disaster, my kid likes to skateboard there. It’s nice because there’s never anyone around, especially evenings.
August 19th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Purpose of the business cards is simple it is to stroke their own egos by passing them around with the title of commissioner so it makes them feel important. That’s it nothing else to it and as far as the costs that is simple too it aint their money so why the hell should they care. Government at it best.
The question still needs to be asked, if Sue McLean & Associates can book some many acts in the Twin Cities especially the zoo why do does BPAC continue to use a loser company like Venue Works????????????
August 19th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Hate to say it, but I think I’m glad I wasn’t chosen for the commission. Doesn’t sound like the approach I would have taken.
Also, as to the focus and booking — seems to me they’re going almost exclusively with theater and putting musical acts on the back burner. That’s an odd choice to me, but look at the promo booklet — it’s all plays and musicals, and not first-rate ones, either. Kind of in the community theater vein, or so it appears. (And I’m not knocking community theater; there’s certainly a place for that in the mix.) From VenuWorks’ history to the background of the commission members, to what’s actually happening, I’m really getting a vibe that they’re ignoring performing musicians in favor of second-rate theater. That’s certainly a choice, but not necessarily one I understand or agree with.
August 19th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
OK, I’m with Michael M and and somewhat pleased I wasn’t selected for the BPAC Commission, but BPAC has become the low hanging fruit. Leave it be and give them enough time (rope) to see where this is headed.
August 19th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
A big echo of what others have said: thanks for sitting through this stuff on behalf of the rest of us. It’s a huge time commitment to sit through it and then write about it.
I paged through the BPAC guide and couldn’t find anything I was really interested in. It didn’t help that some things listed prices and others didn’t. Send me a monthly update with the prices listed and you may get me to go to something. I don’t typically plan my calendar 6 months out though.
As for the commission, enough has been said about them already. I’ll believe they’re effective when I see results. Until then, I’m not holding my breath.
August 19th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Ditto what Joey said.
August 19th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Sorry Ken, but I respectfully disagree.
The taxpayers of Burnsville don’t have the luxury of “leaving it be” and giving them time to see where it is headed. The “time and rope” was the period from which construction was approved and VenuWorks was hired, and the time the facility opened. They’re almost two years in, and the number of significant revenue generating/interest generating acts booked can be counted on one hand. Or the middle finger pointing at us citizens the PAC represents if you’re not into redneck or has-been comedians.
We’re JUST NOW seating a Commission that is SPENDING MONTHS trying to figure out how to build a working “strategic framework” to SOME DAY begin to identify the actual problems (I don’t see that on the agenda though).
The PAC isn’t “low hanging fruit”. It’s the elephant in the room. Or better yet the bull in the china shop when you’re looking at the City’s tax situation.
As long as this thing is sucking my tax dollars and offering me nothing, meanwhile the Police Department is begging for private goodwill offerings to provide a basic and much-needed service (K9 dog and training), I won’t stop holding people’s feet to the fire.
August 19th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Nice work BPAC committee. Let us all vote to do another audit with a price tag of $15,000+ and not ensure that due to Venuworks was in breach of contract on so many Terms and Conditions in the first audit, lets do another one!!
Don’t you think that before you voted to line the pockets of the auditor for another audit that you should have thought through who was going to pay for the second one? Here is a piece of advice, if you are not going to recommend to the council to fire Venuworks immediately for breach of contract, you might as well keep the MMKR audit staff on retainer and have them audit the deliverables of Venuworks year around and the costs for this audit should be deducted monthly from their invoices to the city. What is it going to take to fire Venuworks, three poor audit results, ten, fifteen?
August 19th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Your post has helped us understand the crazy marketing for this weekend’s Art and Jazz festival. We’ve been confused that the Arts Center would rely on “garage sale” type signs to get the word out on what appears to be one of the AC’s big summer events. Seriously, every day we drive by these terrible signs and all I could think was, “Did someone buy blank signs at Fleet Farm and print on them?”
Your post helps explain much ! Thanks!
August 19th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by LazyLightning.org, Shane W McCartney. Shane W McCartney said: RT @SouthMetroNews (The world's longest post, sorry) BPAC Commission Doesn't Do Jacques? http://tinyurl.com/33ue8zq [...]
August 20th, 2010 at 8:51 am
MSPD All good points, but as Bill has pointed out there is very little business experience on the Board and will be slow moving at best. The fish stinks from the head and that’s the appoint authority. Take solace in the fact the at least we can sell uniforms and books in the schools to recover the cost. Ha Ha
August 20th, 2010 at 9:41 am
No matter how you look at it, that’s unsettling.
You can scream all you want to fire VenuWorks, but the best option for the city, still remains to sell this place. The city is not equipped to manage this operation at any level.
Business cards, ha.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:28 am
jf, do you think the massive loss the city will take if they sell the BPAC in this real estate market is worth it?
Re: business cards — I get them quite often from people (and I’m in the private sector), mostly sales and marketing reps. I don’t use them myself, though, although I might if I were in a different line of work. In any case, it shouldn’t be a priority for the commission.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:28 am
Yeah, and the buyer could also take the 100,000 acres of prisitine oceanfront property I have just west of Wichita off my hands.
Dream on.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Heh, I know there would never be a line of buyers for this place. If they can get something, anything for this place it would be much better financially then continuing to try to invest in this bad idea. The place is doomed and will bleed the taxpayers for years, I’m simply suggesting to get out now and put an end to this mess.
August 20th, 2010 at 11:59 am
Even with a decent management company and half way decent promoter booking this place it’d be an uphill battle. What a mess…
August 20th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
We have VenuWorks owner and CEO, Steve Peters who bought the Chanhassen in Jan of 2010. Venuworks is just going to continue to run the BPAC into financial distress to a point where Peters will then swoop in and offer the City ten cents on the dollar to take it off our hands.
I suspect this is Peters / Venuworks business plan – Lets build a $25 Million dollar facility and make money as the experts in building it and operating it with the tax payers money. Then Venuworks will continue to let it lapse into debt beyond anyone’s expectations, and then Steve Peters / Venuworks will offer the City of Burnsville ten cents on the dollar to buy it making money hand over fist at every step of the process. Then once Venuworks owns it they will have shows every night of the week with world class caliber acts because they have skin in the game as the owners. The residents of Burnsville will be left with property tax increases for decades to come to pay the $22 M+ in debt left over from the short sale of the Burnsville Performing Arts Center attributable to the Vision of Mayor Kautz.
Why this was not in the 2008, 2009 and 2010 Venuworks business plan put forth to the city of Burnsville, I have no idea.
http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/onstage/80952632.html
August 20th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Many of Bill’s comments raised some concerning points (at least to me) both in the content of the meeting discussion and the actions taken. While I can’t say what the right course of action is, I hugely appreciate Bill’s time and energy to keep us informed of what is happening in and around the city.
I moved to Burnsville because of the performing arts and delight in knowing there is now a professional venue here. However, I do not understand many of the decisions governing the operation and marketing of this facility. It has to be more complicated than what I see, because so much of this seems like a no-brainer.
I hope that they find their own footing soon so that confidence can be built in this great community asset.
August 24th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
Just a thought….has the BPAC ever really ASKED locals what types of performances we want to see? I mean, it would seem pretty simple to me to simply ASK and then try to tailor the acts to the response.
If the BPAC put out some feelers and said, “Listen, come to the BPAC for a free tour on one of these three days or evenings and fill out a survey about what you might want to see here. You’ll get some free refreshments and a chance to win a gift certificate for ANY show or shows in the next year worth $150″
Well, then you’d narrow the field down to people who would actually go to shows because only those people would care about the prize. Then, you drill down some more in your survey and capture their demographics and you’ll be able to see ages, genders etc. Ok, then use that info plus their survey responses and there you have it! A veritable cornucopia (cheesy, I know) of information from which to base your booking decisions.
I’m a resident of Burnsville and never remember my opinion counting for anything despite having their hand squirming in my purse taking my tax dollars.
January 12th, 2011 at 7:47 am
[...] BPAC Commissioners are doing too much of the Council’s job even though it’s been shown they have done very little since coming into office over 6 months [...]
July 12th, 2011 at 5:26 am
http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_18458171
Jacques resigns and cites exactly the reasons we provided as the reason for the commission being created as his reasons for leaving. Hah.
July 12th, 2011 at 9:18 am
Are the losses cited in that article inclusive of the debt obligations. Given the party that cited, I am inclined to believe they omitted that. $135,000 in losses does not seem that bad relative to the prior years (in that article), so I am wondering if they are comparing apples to oranges.
July 12th, 2011 at 9:40 am
Debt obligations are not VenuWorks’ responsibility and thus it’s never included in their financial docs.
July 12th, 2011 at 9:50 am
The quote in the article about projected losses was from the Burnsville Chief Financial Officer, who is likely spinning it no differently than Venueworks would.
July 12th, 2011 at 9:55 am
Debt obligations are fixed costs. VW and operations aren’t.
July 12th, 2011 at 10:12 am
I understand that difference.
Nonetheless, if the CFO of the city is representing to the community what the projected losses are, I think it prudent that he communicate the real story no different than a CFO of a public company. I would love it if I owned stock in google but they didn’t need to report any debt obligation on their year end fiscals. (knowing nothing about googles financials, for all I know they are debt free, so don’t rip me if that is true, my principle remains)
I get that they report this information as required, but when you are being quoted in an article that just may have more readers of it than readers of the Burnsville financial reports, you should not be spinning a tale.
July 12th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
This is sad, I think that everyone involved on this site here could have told Jacques the following things he quotes in this article before they created this Committee, oops I mean Commission, or what ever the hell they are.
“Jacques said the commission didn’t have a lot of leeway to make meaningful recommendations as the city’s contract with management company VenuWorks is iron-clad.”
Hmmmm, didn’t the Commission provide an extension to VenueWorks to prove themselves and give them more time to clean up their act from all of the blunders that were uncovered by the external audit of the operations of the facility? I thought that extension has a date for this summer where the City could terminate VenueWorks without liability. If this is the case I do not see the contract is being iron-clad, terminate them now!!!
Boy, I would like to know the annual spend with VenueWorks, “The city pays VenuWorks $120,000 a year to run the facility. That figure does not include salaries of center employees, including Director Jon Elbaum.”
“I think part of the reason we were created was to be a buffer to the city council with respect to the complaining public, so we could take some of the heat,” he said.
Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!!! Johnny, tell Jacques what he has won even though it took him over a year to realize this epiphany.
Now what Madam Mayor Kautz????
July 12th, 2011 at 5:43 pm
Kudos to Jacques though for getting involved and then, making a public statement and calling it like it is.
Interesting that the other resignations weren’t publicized, nor did the city seek to fill the empty seats on the commission.
“Now what?” Is definitely a pertinent question.
July 21st, 2011 at 8:37 pm
From: http://www.thisweeklive.com/2011/07/21/run-the-arts-center-in-house-outgoing-chairman-suggests/